Robert Ladrech discusses climate change with PES

PES brings together the Socialist, Social Democratic, Labour and Democratic Parties from all over the European Union and Norway, and the Climate Change Network meeting brought together MEPs from the member parties with trade unions and experts to discuss the future of the EU’s cohesion policy in environmental matters, the future of EU energy and climate policy and the state of play of the Paris Climate Agreement. They also continued to debate the most just transition strategies for states with a high reliance on carbon-based energy to greener alternatives.

The many pressing issues discussed included the impact of the United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Jo Leinen of the German Social Democratic Party, the chairperson of the committee, emphasised the need for cohesion and commitment to the Paris Agreement despite the US’s withdrawal. With the targets of the Paris Agreement in mind, he noted that the ‘European Union needs to update its 2050 decarbonisation roadmap. The current roadmap is simply not ambitious enough if we want to realise the Paris Agreement’s target to limit global warming to well below 2, or even 1.5 degrees Celsius’.

The network also considered the need for a change in the European Union’s atomic energy policy, to shift the emphasis away from building a strong nuclear industry towards the development of renewable energy.